IF + Fried Chicken = Softness

Ok, so I’ve been doing intermittent fasting (IF) for like two weeks now.  I was working out at the apartment fitness center for a lot of the time, and I was also eating quite a bit of frozen yogurt and other carbs and to be honest I thought I was looking more and more ripped. Then I finally was able to start lifting heavy at the Duke gym and realized I was eating maybe 150g protein when I should be eating at least 200g.  That made me think “ok, I need to start eating a whole lot more now” and started having 3-piece chicken dinners from Bojangles (roughly 100g protein) after squat day.  I was really focusing on trying to cram a whole lot of food into that eight hour eating window.  Well, as a result I’ve noticed that I’m looking a lot softer over the past couple of days.  Maybe fried chicken wasn’t the way to go. 

Or maybe it was.  I have to wonder if all that food has helped me get stronger, if not a little softer.  Perhaps I should go through a bit of a massing phase. I have decided to join Crossfit Durham's barbell course, and it would lend itself to getting bulky.  I know now that it is actually possible for me to get at least close to a six pack, so it's not like I'll be giving up on my dreams.  I know this is completely normal but every time I go into a cutting phase I’m suddenly concerned about losing strength and every time I go into a massing phase I then get unhappy about seeing my "abs" go away.

Regardless, I think if I start eating a lot cleaner sources of protein I can probably see some strength gains while losing fat (I consider myself to be in the newb stage here, where everything is possible).  So no more fried chicken.

So right now I’ve figured out how much protein is in each of the meals that I usually make, and I’ve figured out that if I work at it 200g shouldn’t be too hard.  Thing is, I’m not sure how many carbs I should be taking in.  Leangains talks about having a lot of carbs after your workout, but I’m not sure how many a lot is.  With the current fasted training set up I’m doing, I need to eat a huge meal after my workout.  Today I had a .75# steak and two sweet potatoes.  That’s about  90g of protein and about 60g of carbs, respectively.  I have no idea if that’s enough carbs but six hours later and I’m still really, really full.  …I imagine that it’s not enough because in one of his blog posts Martin makes the comment he used to have a box of cereal as his post workout meal.  Damn that’s a lot of carbs.

This past couple of weeks I’ve been working out at noon without having eaten anything, but now that I’m attending the barbell class I’ll be working out in the PM.  According to the lean gains guide I’ll be eating about 50% of my calories before in two meals and then the other half will be in the post-workout meal.  Should be interesting to see how this works out.

I’m going to have to figure out where I want to go, so I can ask the barbell coach how to get there.  I’m thinking I’ll take this opportunity to work on mass/strength, and then go through a cutting phase.  From what I understand with IF it won’t be that that different.  We’ll see.

I’m also excited to get on a new weight training program.  I’d like to learn about 3/5/1 and starting strength.  I hear both of those being thrown around online, but I still don’t understand them (esp. SS) enough to actually implement them.  Can’t wait until Wednesday.